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Sunday, May 19, 2024

Lawnsmell

ORIGINS: Sydney, NSW
GENRE: Punk
YEARS ACTIVE: 1991-1997
 
MEMBERS:
  • Gina Monaco - Vocals, Bass
  • Glenn Smith - Vocals, Bass
  • Matt Allison - Guitar
  • Derek Alley - Drums [1992-1997]
  • Craig Jackson - Drums [1991-1992]
  • Nick Leach - Drums [1994] - Fill in.
RELEASES: 
  • Demo (1993) - Download Here.
    • 1. Androgynous
    • 2. Porch People
    • 3. Laundry Boy
    • 4. Hurt Me

  • Self-Titled 7" (1994) - Download Here.
    • 1. Melts Away
    • 2. Cleveland
    • 3. My Mate
    • 4. My T-shirt
    • 5. Vegie Meat
    • 6. Fine

  • Demo (1994)
    • 1. Melts Away
    • 2. Cleveland
    • 3. Left Behind
    • 4. Midget
    • 5. Warmf


  • De-Sexed (1995) - Download Here.
    • 1. Left Behind
    • 2. Love
    • 3. Warmf
    • 4. Green Teeth Kiss
    • 5. M!dget
    • 6. Warmf (Reprise)
    • 7. Melts Away
    • 8. Cleveland
    • 9. My Mate
    • 10. My T-Shirt
    • 11. Vegie Meat
    • 12. Fine
    • 13. Birthday
    • 14. Androgynous
    • 15. New School 


  • That's Not All You Can Smell (1996) - Split with All You Can Eat
    • 1. A.Y.C.E.
    • 2. Fight or Flight
    • 3. Lose It All
    • 4. I Don't Wanna Talk About It
    • 5. I'm Gone
    • 6. ...Easier


  • Self-Titled (1997) - Split with No Reason
    • 1. Bottom of the Sun
    • 2. Merciless
    • 3. Why Quit
  • Compilation-only Tracks - Download Here and Download Here.
    • Cicada (1995) - on Jerky (Purr-Zine compilation)
    • Punk Police (1995) - on Half-Life (Serum Records compilation)
    • Could've Been Anyone (1995) - on Star Trackers compilation
    • Keep the Beat (1995) - on Neoteny 2 compilation
    • Lose It All (1995) - on Neoteny 2 compilation
    • Drew (1995) - on Keep On Babble On (Oxford Radio compilation) 


  • Lawnography (2008) - Discography Album
    • 37 songs drawn from all the above releases.

SUMMARY: Lawnsmell began when a group of friends decided to put a band together after attending a punk show at the Phoenician Club in the early '90s. Their first drummer exited after one show and after this point the lineup solidified and remained the same for most of the band's time, except for part of 1994 when drummer Derek was doing his HSC (leading to a fill-in drummer, Nick Leach). The band released four key releases after some demos - a self-titled 7", an album, and two split releases with other bands. During the early to mid-90s the band played regularly in the Sydney punk scene and also toured Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle, Wollongong, etc. By 1997 things had run their course and members were ready to move on.

SHOWS: 
1994, taken from Loaded to the Gills Issue 5

ORAL HISTORY:
MATT: I met Gina at high school at Kogarah in 1986. Two years later she went to art school and met Glenno, who had moved to Sydney from Orange. 
Matt Allison (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
GINA: First day at COFA Art School uni, Glenn tapped me on the shoulder and asked about my T-shirt. It was a Descendants shirt and he had no idea who they were. He was 18 and I was 21... I felt pity for this cute country kid so I mad him a mix tape. We became best friends from that day. Swapping tapes, going to cool gigs, and we decided to form a band. 
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
GLENNO: We decided to get a band together at the All gig at the Phoenician Club. The idea was very naive... no plain. Just a band and see what happens. Gina and I both played bass so we had two bass players. No reason other than we had two bass players that wanted to be in a band together. We had no clue, we had no shame.
Glen Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GINA: I already had the name Lawnsmell as I love the smell of freshly cut grass. We both played bass so we thought, fuck it, let's have two bassists. Glenn played with his fingers and did the tricky bits and I did the heavy thumpybits. It was easy really - we loved writing songs together they would make us laugh. 20 years later I married him.
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

From Drum Media, January 1993

MATT: We all liked a wide range of music but we all loved melodic punk bands like The Hard-Ons and Descendants, so we decided to form a band to play this kind of music... We roped in Craig Jackson to play drums. He only stayed for our first gig then moved on.
Matt Allison (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GLENNO: Our first show was the Lewisham Hotel Birthday Party with Casualty, Persecution, Sugar Daddies and us. It was my first proper stage. The sound guy kept telling me to get closer to the microphone when I sang. I didn't like what I heard so I kept stepping back. It was naive to the point of comedy. Naive is a strength in punk rock... it can't be faked. If your songs are strong and your technique questionable - it's a unique blend. That's what we had... and had a great time being nervous. People liked our honesty and our inclusive band culture. We were very casual but we were sometimes quite fast and heavy. 
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GINA: Our first show... I was scared and very green. I would always - and still get - nervous. It was a party so people clapped that night and seemed to enjoy us, and that was that. We continued played with great frequency after that. It was more my thing than my last band, The Rosemarys, and I finally felt part of something I loved. Being in Lawnsmell was a hoot! I met the most amazing friends and played with some of my teenage-favourite bands like The Hard-Ons and Radio Birdman. All was the most exciting for me, we played with All twice. Hellmenn also blew me away. 
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MATT: We found this young guy named Derek Alley. He was still in high school at the time and after he joined the lineup remained unchanged until the end. 
Matt Allison (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

DEREK: The band was already in motion when I joined. I believe they played some gigs with Craig before that. I shopped at Soundgarden Records in Hurstville and started talking with Gina when she was working there one day. I mentioned I was a drummer and we organised a jam. My first show was at the Petersham Inn with other bands that were friends with Lawnsmell. I was 15 and could only drink water or soft drinks... 
Derek Alley (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
Advertisement, Noisecrash Issue 3, November 1995
 
MATT: The 7" came out early June. So far it's sold really well, we've almost sold out of the initial 500 pressing... I haven't sent many out to radio stations yet, although we just did an interview on Sydney public radio station 2SER! 
Matt Allison (Guitar), TMT Issue 18, 1992-1996.
 
GINA: I wanted to call the band Bluish-Greenish at first, but none of the others came round... so we called our record label Bluish-Greenish. And being our label we were pretty disappointed that we could only get purplish-pinkish vinyl... I'd like to get some demos from young bands if they want to send me demos.
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Loaded to the Gills Issue 5, July/August 1994


MATT: Our sound is a bit unconventional in the sense that we have two bass players a lot of the time. And also, Glenn tends to play a lot of the lead guitar bits on the bass, where as I tend to just fill the sound out more. But I don't know; it's hard to be objective about your own band... but hopefully it's a big sound. There's plenty of that, without sounding like Kyuss. There's a fair bit of bottom end. We're sick of bands tuning down. I think we tend to be on the more melodic, poppier side of hardcore or whatever you want to call it - I think as a reaction to a lot of the slow, grungey kind of stuff. We're more influenced by bands like All, the Descendants - just really short quick songs that don't get you bored.
Matt Allison. Loaded to the Gills Issue 5, July/August 1994

GLENNO: We played the Vulcan Hotel, Feedback in Newtown, The Den in Penshurst, the Lansdowne, Hornsby police boys Cosmic Snail shows, Max's in Petersham, the Bat and Ball, Evil Star, the Metro, Selina's, Wanda Surf Club, Maning Bar, Bondi Pavilion... there were dozens of Sydney venues and we played with tons of overseas touring bands. We were Sydney's greatest support band and we didn't really fit into any pigeonhole. Back then, mixed bills were very common. It wasn't so specific, incestuous and generic... like the hardcore scene. It was friendly and bands didn't try to fit in. The opposite was true. We couldn't play punk rock by numbers because I didn't know the numbers to emulate. I let songs appear to me and never overthought it... We got really good at whatever it was we were doing. Played with some real legends and always felt fine feeling like outsiders and pretenders. People saw great things in what we did when we couldn't see it ourselves. We just loved doing what we did. These days I know what's what but I was living a povvo life, in a romantic time, and just loved doing it. I had no ambition or attitude. I was a country kid just doing it. What I had dreamt of. Punk rock, D.I.Y., my needs were few and I had some great friends to adventure with.
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MATT: The ALL gig was a dream come true - they're our all time heroes! It was our favourite gig for obvious reasons. We play on average once a week or fortnight. We have a little bit to do with No Deal, which is basically a guy named Sean (ex-Toe to Toe, now Downtime) and he's one of our biggest supporters. He's expressed interest in recording us for his label but was pretty busy so we just went ahead and did it ourselves. We played on a few No Deal bills.
Matt Allison (Guitar), TMT Issue 18, 1992-1996.
 
GINA: We learnt things along the way. Especially for me. I slowly became a better bass player with all the gigs we did. We were lucky to have gigs thrown at us back then. We were lucky and very green back then.  
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GLENN: Gina plays the meaty bits and I play the vegetables and desert... Matt's got the guitar well and truly covered.
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), TMT Issue 18, 1992-1996.

DEREK: Playing with two basses was as easy as playing with one. You get used to it very quickly. It was a bassalicious eight note foundation to layer melodic syncopation over.
Derek Alley (Drums), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024


GLENNO: I changed from Glenn Smith to Glenn Lawnsmell. I also started to draw a lot more obsessively and that drive has only accelerated with each year. The D.I.Y. ethic and punk community lent me enthusiasm and tools to organise my efforts. The scene was also full of brilliant friends that remain to this day. The punk scene especially was not 'easy' then. People got yelled at by cars full of 'normal' yobs. Newtown was full of impoverished students and freaks. It was affordable and dangerous. Brilliant.
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GINA: If people want to hear certain songs they'll yell 'em out. We usually end up playing those ones anyway. We keep them in the set list 'cause, you know, the kiddies like them.
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Loaded to the Gills Issue 5, July/August 1994

GLENNO: The band's lineup didn't really change. We had Derek on drums but in the semifinals of a band comp at the Vic on the Park he was a no-show due to glandular fever. We grabbed a guy we knew from the crowd who could play drums. His name was Nick Leach, he didn't know our songs... and we won. The crowd wanted it to work and we gave descriptions of the song to him on stage and told him to look to me for any changes at the start of each song. Both the band and the crowd were hoping for the best and it was great. We ended up winning that night and then the final too. We won some recording time but I don't think the recording ever got a release. We did it with Nik on drums. 
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
MATT: We won a band comp - y'know, big deal - we had to play there three times and we got $200 for three shows. We were supposed to get an article in On The Street, which didn't happen - we got a few lines. We're s'posed to get future gigs at the Vic on the Park, which didn't eventuate. Band comps are a big joke. I s'pose they're got a purpose for bands who just want to play and get out there, but they're a real rip-off.  
Matt Allison. Loaded to the Gills Issue 5, July/August 1994
 
GINA: When I was 24, my first school I taught at had this kid in Year 12... we got that kid's band, Gilgamesh, heaps of shows with us. Later that kid became a Lawnsmell fan who used to make his own Lawnsmell T-shirts, and he later married my friend's sister. Now he is in the bass player in my current band, Hellebores.  
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

Loaded to the Gills Issue 5, July/August 1994
 
GLENNO: We did a handful of songs at the end that I really like. Those songs were our side of a split record with San Francisco's All You Can Eat - a band I am still in contact with in its many splintered groups. Gina and I got married in San Francisco with all that lot officiating in Golden Gate Park. I listen back on those songs and see where my music now has come from. It was a warm up for Chinese Burns Unit, Outcest, and Hellebores. Lawnsmell was a bit of fun that got out of hand. We played 200 plus gigs in the 4 or 5 years we played. 
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024
 
GINA: The highlight of the band for me was playing with Glenn... he was my best friend and was a hoot to be around. We laughed at ourselves constantly. We wrote silly songs about crazy things that happened to us or what we observed... and still do. I need him to write songs; he takes my lyrics and turns them into magic. Sometimes I go to him with a tune, he plays a few riffs on his guitar, and like that there is a song. We still spend our Friday nights writing songs. I also look back at the all the cool friends we made and still keep in contact with. 
Gina Monaco (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

MATT: We ended around '96. I was the first to jump ship, thought we were going round in circles and I was into lots of different music, so I was keen to move on. We remained friends though, and still are.
Matt Allison (Guitar), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

GLENNO: Lawnsmell came to an end when it was becoming less fun. Gina and guitarist Matt were going out with each other and that finished but the band kept going. The magic sort of evaporated and I found I was trying too hard to keep the momentum up. We are all still friends and it's the ideal way to call it quits. 
Glenn Smith (Vocals, Bass), Noise Levels correspondence, 2024

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